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Long seen as an innovative alternative to home entertainment, the "first social media center" allows its users to play a variety of video and media from their home devices, as well as stream TV, movies, music, and photos from the internet. It was developed for watching video from a distance of six feet - "the way video was meant to be watched."

After a year and a half in alpha, the company is ready to give Brooklyn (and the world) an early look at its new features, partner applications, and introduce a 4-week early-access beta program for users to test things out before the public gets its access at CES on January 7.

From the Boxee blog, the beta will include a fresh user interface, updated navigation, TV and movies search functionality, an updated queue, shortcuts, and more.